Here's To Many More
by SomedayonBroadway
Summary: It's Christmas. The Spider was gone and they could be happy. Right?


**Hello all! Merry December!**

 **This is a request that I got from a wonderful reviewer and excellent friend Lunar-Eclipse412! Thank you so much for this Christmas request.**

 **So I did this one a bit differently than I normally do things. I kind of just wrote this one straight through, which is normally hard. But I wanted to see what would happen and I actually enjoyed it a lot, so I really hope you guys like it!**

 **Please enjoy!**

It wasn't enough. It never was. Working overtime and saving every damn dollar of his tips still wasn't enough.

It was Christmas. Christmas meant they'd actually get to have a Christmas. But only if Jack could afford it.

Snyder was gone. He was gone for a week and now was Jack's chance to give these kids an actual Christmas, some of them for the very first time. And now, it was three days until Christmas and he was still running behind.

"Whoa, Jackie!" a young boy called as Jack practically slipped out the door.

"I don't have time ta talk, Crutchie! I'm gonna be late!" For work. Of course. Because where else would Jack be running to so early in the morning?

"Take a breath, Jack! You're gonna wear yourself out!" another voice called from further into the kitchen. Jack hated to look up at the both of them. They were covered in bruises. Both of them. After all, Snyder had only been gone for a day now. The hurts didn't heal that quickly.

"Racer, I gotta go! Keep an eye on the littles!"

"Whoa! Would ya slow down and talk ta us f'r two minutes?" Crutchie asked, grabbing his crutches that leaned against the counter that he was sitting at. Jack sighed and stopped at the door, turning slowly and watching his brothers walk up to him. "Romeo said somethin' about you tellin' him Santa might not be comin'... afta' all we did ta get him excited about it..." the boy sighed. "Why would ya say that?"

"I didn't!" Jack defended immediately. "The Spider did!"

It was early. They were the only three awake. The Spider had them on a schedule. Race was to clean the kitchen and make the old man breakfast before six and Crutchie had to be up at five forty five to make his lunch and get him aspirin on the days that he was hungover while Race warmed up his car and put all of his things in the passenger seat. Jack was there to make sure neither of them got hurt for being too tired to carry out their chores. He started cleaning the rest of the house immediately when Race woke up and he didn't leave for work until Snyder was gone for the day.

The system wasn't perfect. They were always exhausted, having been up with homework, nightmares, sickness or whatever else the world decided to throw at them that night. More often than not one of them would end up getting hit. But it was what they had to do. And now, even with Snyder away, the alarm was still planted in their brains.

"What did you tell him, Jack?" Race sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and almost glaring at his foster brother.

Jack rolled his eyes and slumped his shoulders. "I told him that Santa's busy, alright?"

"Jack-"

"I don't have enough, Race!" the older boy hissed, exasperated and so stressed it was impossible. For years he'd been able to scrape by and give the kids in his home a nice Christmas. This year wasn't like those ones. There were two more people that were there this year. Little Romeo was the newest edition into their home and Elmer had only come a few months ago. Instead of seven of them, there were now nine of them. And not only did all of these kids need food, they needed hope for the Christmases that hadn't come yet. "I don't got enough to do it all..." Jack admitted. "I's been tryin' but-"

"Let us help, Jack!" Crutchie begged, for what must've been the millionth time. "We still have all that allowance from helping Medda at the theatre n'-"

"That's not for this, Crutch... it's ta help ya get outta this shit and ya know it..."

"Jack we's gonna have ta get real jobs soon anyways... let us do this!" Race pleaded.

"Just," Jack groaned, raising up his hand in frustration to try and make the argument stop. "We'll talk about it later. Right now I really gotta go! Keep an eye on the littles n' don't let 'em near the Spider's stuff!"

With a quick roll of his eyes, Race sighed. "I got it, Jack..." All Jack could do was rush up, press a kiss to both of their heads, and run out the door as fast as he could.

Crutchie raised an eyebrow, glancing over at the older boy standing beside him. "You ain't gonna leave it, are ya?"

A scoff escaped Race's lips at that. "Of course I ain't," he laughed, shaking his head. "I know Jack don't like it when we does things ta help him, but damn it... this is about more 'n him this time..."

It was. Romeo and Elmer had never had a real Christmas and Jack always did his best to give the kids the best damn Christmas they could have. This year he needed help. "I say you bring the boys down, turn on Spider's TV an' watch somethin' while I's go-"

"Be Jackie for a day," Crutchie finished with a smirk and a roll of his eyes. "You got it, Racer, but I ain't coverin' f'r ya when Jack comes home..." the younger boy sighed before moving away, over to the couch that was in the middle of the living room. Race felt his heart clench when he watched his friend sit down, hissing at the pain in his legs. "Don't look at me like that," the boy said without even glancing over to he his foster brother's face. "I'll be fine."

Race believed him. At least for the moment. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done..." Race assured, rushing up the stairs to grab the money he needed before rushing back out the door. He could do this. Everything would be okay.

Until everything wasn't okay.

"This ain't gonna work, Medda... I already feel bad enough that the boys ain't gonna get Santa on Christmas..."

Jack. Jack wasn't okay.

"Sweetheart, if you do this, then there won't be another damn Christmas that they have to worry about that..." Medda promised reaching across her kitchen table to squeeze his hand. Jack was panicking again. It had been months. He'd been working hard and looking for a real job and she believed in him. He could do this. "How did that job interview go?" she asked, leaning back in her chair and taking a sip of her coffee.

"It... went." He was too young, they'd said. At least, that's what he'd heard. He wasn't expecting anything from it. After all, he was barely seventeen. They wanted someone with more experience. "An' that apartment is still available. Kloppman says I's doin' good..." Kloppman. His lawyer. An old friend of his mothers, along with Medda. "What if they's let me outta the system an' I still can't get the boys?"

A sigh escaped Medda's lips. It would be hard. She knew it. "Well... Anthony only has two years left n' Specs ain't far behind him..."

With a shake of his head and tears building up in his eyes Jack bit his lip. "What about the rest of 'em? Crutchie n' Al n' the twins. N' Elmer n' Romeo... they're so _young_ n' I don't want them with Snyder. He hurts them, Medda!"

"Shshshsh..." the woman soothed, standing up so she could round the table and embrace this young boy who had already been through too much is his small amount of life. "I know, baby... it'll all be alright..."

"I just... I want 'em... I love those kids an' I don't want this for 'em..."

"It'll be alright, Jack... this is the first step into getting them out of there and you know that I will be by your side every step of the way..." the woman promised, kissing the top of Jack's hair. She wished beyond anything that she could've just adopted this boy the second his mother passed. The sad truth was, she couldn't. She'd had a troubled childhood. But this kid? He could do this. She believed that.

Jack sighed. He hadn't exactly lied to his boys. He had been going to work... mostly. Just... on his break and between shifts he'd been meeting with Kloppman and Medda. He couldn't tell the boys. If he told the boys, he'd get the boys' hopes up and when- if he didn't do it, he would never be able to forgive himself. "Ya really think I can do it?"

A smile melted onto Medda's face at the hint of hope in the boy's voice. And she squeezed his hand again. "If you can't do it, Jack Kelly... no one can..."

And she truly believed that.

Crutchie lay on his and Jack's bed alone for a minute. As much as he loved his brothers, the quiet was always nice. He lay on his stomach, chin resting on top of his folded arms as he read the next chapter of the book that he was pretty sure Race had stolen for him a few months ago. With Snyder home, he rarely ever found time to read, even though he loved it. When he'd first been transferred to this home two years prior, Snyder had found all of his books and torn the pages out of them. Now he had to hide his things. They all did.

Race had gotten back an hour ago, thankfully before Jack. A stash of gifts was hidden somewhere Crutchie didn't even know and he didn't have the energy to find out. Right now, all he could do was lay down and wait for the pain in his leg to fade a little more.

"Yes! Thank you so much! You have no idea how much I appreciate this!"

And smile at how excited his big brother sounded as he walked through the bedroom door. "What's got you all excited, Jackie?" Crutchie asked, twisting around on the bed so he was laying on his side, facing his friend as the older boy grinned with an amazed and awed kind of look in his eyes.

"I got the job..." Jack whispered, his eyes tearing up as he said it out loud.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Crutchie sat up, ignoring the pain still in his leg. "What?"

A laugh bubbled up from Jack's chest as he ran forward and hugged his best friend so tightly. "I got the job! Charlie, I got the job! They liked me! They liked my work!"

"Jack, what are you talkin' about? I thought you already have a job," the boy stated, pulling out of the embrace to see happy tears sliding down his foster brother's cheeks.

Jack shook his head. His brother didn't understand and that was okay. He didn't need to understand yet. He was still young and innocent and he could get him out of here. "I's got a real job now, kid! They's gonna pay me more n' give me more hours n' I can still keep my job at the diner f'r more durin' the night n' on weekends!"

Two jobs. It was going to be hard. He knew it would be. But it would be worth it. So freaking worth it.

"But... the Spida' said ya couldn't-"

"The Spida' ain't gonna know what hit him, Crutch... I promise..."

The boy didn't know what his brother meant by that. But he found it hard not to feel a spark of hope light up in him when the older boy looked at him like that, full of determination and new found strength that neither of them had seen in a long time.

"Jack!" a small voice squealed happily as two very small boys rushed through the open door. "Jack, Race is chasing us!" Romeo and Elmer looked so much more innocent then they had days before. There was still a faint scrap on Romeo's chin and a burn on Elmer's arm, but Jack couldn't help but laugh at their childlike wonder that he wished so desperately to preserve for just a little bit longer.

"Oh he is, is he?" Jack laughed jumping up from the bed and waited for another boy to rush through the door, only to grab him around the waist and hold him tightly to his chest, though the kid struggled and wiggles around in his embrace, panicked only for a moment before he realized who it was that was gripping onto him. "Racer, are you chasin' your brothers?" he asked, as if he was speaking to a boy much younger than him, rather than a boy he only had one year on.

"Jack... I know not of what you speak..." Race sighed dramatically, trying to play innocent by standing still for a moment before resuming in his wiggling and struggling.

With a laugh and a wink down at the littlest boys of the house, Jack just grinned. "Well, I guess I'll have to get the answer out of you the hard way..." With a mischievous grin and a strong grip, Jack eyed the bed before locking back in on the littles. "Boys?"

"Jack, don't you dare!"

"Get him!"

And before Crutchie could even think to panic about all the noise they were making, he was laughing at the eagerness and pure joy the kids found in tackling Race on the bed and relentlessly tickling him as Jack held him down. The laughs must've travelled across the hall. It wasn't long before four more boys were in the room that Crutchie had once claimed for quiet time. The boy just rolled his eyes and grabbed his crutch, limping closer to his brothers jumping up onto the heap of boys that were now squirming around on Race and Romeo's bed.

Somehow, all nine of the boys ended up in a giggling pile ten minutes later, the two littles on top of Racetrack, Crutchie and Albert laying spread across Jack, Specs' legs flung the oldest boy's with Mike and Ike huddled together beside him. These kids hadn't laughed so hard or so long since the last time Snyder had left them home alone. It had been months ago, before Elmer had even been apart of their makeshift family. Jack has been making dinner and Mike had decided it was as good a time as any to throw tomato sauce at his twin brother. Needless to say, all seven of the boy in the home at the time had ended up with red sauce smeared all over their clothes.

Snyder hadn't been too happy when he'd found out.

These moments shouldn't have to be few and far in between. These kids deserved to laugh like this every damn day of their lives and Jack was more determined now than ever to give them that life. A life they all deserved.

"I love you, boys..." Jack mumbled as he stared at the ceiling, knowing that no matter what, he had to do this. No matter what, he had to get them out of this.

"Yeah... we kinda like you too..." Albert assured him, nudging him with his elbow a little bit. Crutchie snorted and reached across their big brother to flick the redhead in the ear.

"Jackie?" little Romeo asked from his place on Race's chest.

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"Is we bein' bad?"

Jack's heart broke. It wasn't the first time Romeo had asked. Just as Jack would've tried to explain that Santa would just be a little busy this year, Race beat him to the punch.

"No, buddy... Santa knows ya been real good all year. N' he'll be here on Christmas Eve 's long 's you's sleepin' j'st like you's supposed ta..." With a stupid wink Race gave him, Jack knew. And, not able to be anywhere near angry with his brother, Jack just shook his head with a smirk and reached over to pinch the bridge of Race's nose, making the younger boy laugh a little.

"Last year Santa gave me a jacket!" Mike told Romeo, so excited it made Jack's heart leap. The kid was excited about a jacket when he should be getting spoiled with candy and toys and everything good in the world. Instead, he had gotten possibly the first warm jacket he'd ever gotten in his life.

Ike nodded eagerly into his twin's shoulder, making Jack's smile widen. All of the boys launched into their Christmas memories to the littlest boys who had never experienced it in their short lives.

Next year it would be better. It would be so much better. That was a silent vow that Jack intended to keep.

Jack woke up on Christmas morning to two small boys with a grin on his face jumping on his chest and telling him that "Santa came, Jack! Santa came!" Mike and Ike were only a minute or two behind them, pulling on Jack's arms when the oldest boy of the house tried to close his eyes again.

"Alright! Alright! I'm comin'!" he promised with a laugh, pushing himself out of bed and letting Crutchie climb onto his back and rest his sleepy head on his shoulder as they made their way down the stairs of the house to the living room where a few presents were sitting on the coffee table, waiting to be opened.

Catching sight of Race, still half asleep with little Elmer sitting on his lap, Jack laughed, setting down the boy on his back and plopping down right next to the Italian kid, letting him lay a head on his shoulder as Crutchie sat on his other side, sitting up and watching the kids tear into their presents so eagerly.

It was a mess of wrapping paper and messy Christmas cards but Jack watched every one of those kids tear into those gifts that their faces lit up at. New shoes and warm coats were the theme and that was okay. "Santa did good this year..." Jack mumbled to the curly headed boy falling asleep on him. He gave a peck to the top of Racetrack's hair and the younger boy smiled sleepily, humming out an agreement.

"Now c'mon, Race! Santa didn't forget about you!" Crutchie called out with a grin, still admiring a brand new book that he'd wanted to read for years and the new tennis shoes he'd just been given. And Race squinted his eyes a little before a wrapped gift was tossed into his lap. With a loving glance over at the boy with the crutch, the boy began to tear into the wrapping with a giddy kind of smile.

Jack wished to have this everyday. He prayed for this every morning. Christmas was the only day they truly had it. Peace. The fear of hits was gone, the fear of things being torn away melted away too.

"Alright boys... now that you's opened your presents and 're all awake... there's somethin' I's gotta be tellin' ya..." Jack was hesitant. He was only halfway there, and the plan was bound be to be hard. He knew it was. There was no guarantee they'd all be his and if they were, it certainly wouldn't be soon enough.

All eyes turned to him. Jack felt his hands begin to shake. After all the years he'd spent in this house, after all the beatings and lashings he'd taken so that none of his brothers would have to, it was hard to believe what he was about to say next. "Two days ago... I was officially emancipated..."

He was. On Christmas Eve Eve, without any kind of word from his stupid foster dad, he was set free. And that was that.

The way Race's eyes widened was heartbreaking. "What?" he forced out, terrified all of the sudden. Jack knew why. Him and Racer had been together for four years now. If Jack left, he'd be the oldest. He wasn't ready for that. He never would be. And Jack vowed that he'd never have to be.

Looking around it was clear that most of the room didn't know what the word meant. Those who did know looked thoroughly petrified and Jack felt his heart shattering over and over again.

"Jack..." Crutchie whispered out, searching for words. He wanted to be happy for his big brother. But it was hard. Hard when the weight of the world came crashing down onto him.

"Wha's emanstipated mean?" Elmer asked, the six year old curling into Race as the boy held him tighter, trying to understand.

With a sigh, Jack scooted closer to the child, giving him a small smile. "It means I ain't a foster kid no more..."

"You's got adopted?" Little Romeo came waddling up to Jack. This boy, Jack scooped up and set protectively in his lap as he tried to find a way to explain.

"Well, no..." the oldest boy of the house sighed with a sad smile. "I's on my own now..."

"You's leaving?" Ike asked, tears welling up in his eyes as he looked at Jack in disbelief.

With a shake of his head Jack said, "no way in hell I could eva' leave any a' you's..." It was a promise. He loved these boys more than he loved anything in the world. "I's... uhm... I's fightin' f'r custody..."

It was like someone just told them they'd won the lottery. Jack swore it would always be the most memorable moment of his entire life. The older boys' mouths hung open. Even Race, the oldest of the bunch after him, had shocked and happy tears running down his face. Before another word could be said, Specs rushed up, wrapping his long arms around Jack, letting a confused Romeo crawl off of his lap so the older boy could stand and hug him properly. Albert wasn't far behind, rushing up to cling to Specs's back and let Jack's arms surround them both. Crutchie was next, a sob escaping the thirteen year old's throat as he fought his way to Jack's side, letting his big brother laugh and wrap an arm around him, gripping the back of his old sweatshirt.

"I love you, boys... n' you can bet your ass that I'll be here everyday until you're all with me, do you understand?" Jack swore, letting hopeful tears fall from his eyes as he simply held his boys tightly to him.

Mike and Ike ran over to him before long, wrapping their arms around Jack's waist and hearing him giggle a little bit. "I'm gonna do it, I promise. The Spida' can't have you no more, okay?"

Race couldn't help himself. He rushed over to the boy he'd called his best friend for so long and pressed up against his back, hugging him so tightly Race didn't know if his brother could even still breathe. "Merry Christmas, Jackie..."

"Merry Christmas, boys..."

"Here's to many more..." Crutchie grinned.

The two babies didn't entirely know what was going on. They just watched with fascination as their brothers held onto each other for dear life, never wanting to let go. They were all terrified it was just some crazy dream.

They wouldn't understand. Not until six months later when they were walking into an apartment where they'd get their own bed and wake up to smiles and giggles and pancakes and bacon. Not until there were no more screams or hits or terror. Not until Race stopped shooting up ag four forty five every morning and Crutchie stopping hissing in pain whenever he tried to walk. Not until they were home.

A year later on Christmas, Santa spoiled those kids rotten with candy and toys and everything good in the world.

And everything was okay.

They were home.

 **I just thought this was a really cute idea. The request was for Jack to be trying to give his boys a good Christmas, but not being able to afford it so Race and Crutchie had to help out, but for Jack to still be able to get them something really special. So I came up with this.**

 **A few headcanons for this story:**

 **• Specs is mute. Hasn't spoken in years. I suppose he might start speaking again after Jack adopted them all.**

 **• Albert has an eating disorder that Jack helps him through very gently and very slowly.**

 **• Mike and Ike are little trouble makers and once Jack gets them, they pull pranks on the older boys all the time.**

 **• Elmer is really small because he was born prematurely and is now malnourished so Jack's scared that he's never going to be as healthy as he should be.**

 **And now for the ages of the characters:**

 **• Jack- 17**

 **• Race- 16**

 **•Specs- 15**

 **•Albert- 13**

 **• Crutchie- 13**

 **•Mike and Ike- 9**

 **•Elmer- 6**

 **•Romeo- 5**

 **I really hope you guys enjoyed!**

 **As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to tell me what you liked, what you didn't, what you'd change or what you'd improve by leaving me a review! Love ya, fansies!**


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